Posted in Building Community, Locally grown, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Apr 23rd, 2010
Slowly, slowly, things are taking shape in the garden. Last Saturday, 9 volunteers came to help pot up summer squash, plant potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and continue dig up bamboo for the future raspberry bed. And earlier, I was able to get 25 donated asparagus crowns planted. Baby leeks, onions, basil, cilantro, parsley and thyme are [...]
Posted in Locally grown, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Apr 5th, 2010
On the upper left, a “cage-free organic” egg from the grocery store. On the lower right, an egg from Plucky, one of our hens. (I’d hate to add in a factory farmed egg – it couldn’t hold a candle.) Now, which one do you think is the way a chicken egg is supposed to look? [...]
Posted in Changing Seasons, Homemaking, Locally grown, Moderation and Economy, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Apr 1st, 2010
A few quick pictures Firecracker and I took in the garden yesterday afternoon: The chickens having a grand time in the compost bin. All sorts of things are germinating – peas, peas and more peas, chard, kale, mustard greens, beets, lettuce, poppies, sweet peas, calendula, artichokes, chives, parsley and basil. The garlic and shallots we [...]
Posted in Birding, Homemaking, Learning, Locally grown, Moderation and Economy, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Mar 28th, 2010
We got chickens!! After months of scouring Craigslist, pricing materials at the ReBuilding Center and researching plans (not to mention years of wishing, dreaming)… we finally found a used coop that met our super tight budget. (A coat of pretty paint, and the sturdy coop will look quite nice in the back corner of our [...]
Posted in Building Community, Homemaking, Learning, Locally grown, Moderation and Economy, Uncategorized, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Mar 18th, 2010
Yesterday afternoon, with my son on my back, the girls and I potted up the first of our tomato seedlings – all 51 of them. (The one above is a “Black Krim”, a favorite of ours for salads.) Another 26 little tomato-lets (started a week later) will be potted up this weekend, time allowing. (Above: [...]
Posted in From my kitchen, Learning, Locally grown, Moderation and Economy on Mar 17th, 2010
Today we finished Michael Pollan‘s In Defense of Food. The girls and I listened to it on unabridged book CD over the course of several afternoons of making dinner. I had really enjoyed The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, but somehow missed this one until now. Much of what he writes really melds [...]
Posted in From my kitchen, Homemaking, Locally grown on Mar 16th, 2010
The girls and I made a special beef stew for my birthday yesterday. They especially enjoyed blending the spices at the beginning…and later standing by the stove, inhaling the amazing aroma of spice-dredged beef browning in butter (oh, and eating three big bowls of hot stew at dinner, too!). We don’t eat much meat, but [...]
Posted in Locally grown, Moderation and Economy, Uncategorized, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Mar 10th, 2010
Seems like we’ve been living in our wellies this week as we spent most of our time planting in the garden. This week we’ve started: Peas, round two, this time in the front yard – Little Marvel, Tall Telephone, and Oregon Sugar Pod II. Potatoes, in three beds in the backyard, near the larger coldframe [...]
Posted in Changing Seasons, Locally grown, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Feb 26th, 2010
You know what they say – “Good things comes in small packages.” I think tomato seeds are just about the best small package around -they contain the promise of wonderful meals to come. I know our garden is going to be growing food for more than our nuclear family, and therefore we’ll be starting more [...]
Posted in From my kitchen, Locally grown on Dec 4th, 2009
It’s no secret that pie is our dessert of choice here at the Baker house. At the holidays I try to bake a pie at least a 3 or 4 times a week, rotating between nut and custard and fruit pies. And, in my opinion, at the holidays, no fruit pie is complete without the [...]